For more information on shooting/selling stock footage check out my other posts:
GETTING STARTED
KEYWORDING
WHAT SELLS?
I've been traveling a lot lately working as an Editor for the UFC and I have come to find that it is easy to get inspired by new places. If you have a chance to travel, make sure you bring your camera and tripod along. If you can find a little time after your work, or sacrifice a few hours of sleep, then you have a unique opportunity to capture images in a place you may never otherwise get the chance to shoot. I recently traveled to Calgary and was able to capture around 40 quality stock footage clips and time-lapses. Fortunately I like walking and Calgary is very walker friendly. I probably walked 25 miles to see the city from all angles. It was an un-believably productive week. Because, not only was I earning money from my edit job, but I walked away with a lot of great stock footage that will earn me money for years to come, plus I really had a great time exploring the city. It would have been easy to just hang out in my hotel room, or go out to a bar at night, but what are the long term benefits of THAT?
Here are a few of the spots I hit:
Downtown from Prince's Island Park -
I walked a few blocks to a beautiful park that had some great scenic views of downtown Calgary, I love reflection shots. Unfortunately it was a little hazy out this day, but it is still a nice daytime establishing shot of downtown Calgary. I returned one evening to the same spot to shoot a night shot and there were beavers swimming all over the pond which made very interesting ripples in my night time lapse shot. |
| Peace Bridge - Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
Peace Bridge -
This is the Peace Bridge from the north bank of the Bow River with the northwest end of downtown Calgary in the background. Normally it is good to find a frame with some good movement in it for a time lapse shot. The river gives some nice movement, but it was still a little bland so I added a zoom in post. That's one great thing about shooting time-lapse with a DSLR. My Canon t2i shoots a 5K image so with a 1080p final frame size, I have lots of room to move around the frame in post without losing any quality. |
| Top Floor of the Westin Hotel in Calgary |
High angle of downtown Calgary -
The first thing I do whenever I'm in a new hotel is take the elevator up to the top floor to see what the view looks like. The Westin in Calgary had a pool on the top floor with a panoramic view of the city, perfect for a midnight time lapse shot looking down on the city streets.
See this clip at Pond5
I always travel with a pretty light load of camera gear, I've found that I am a lot more likely to cary it with me if it isn't too much of a hassle; I'm also able to look less conspicuous in places like airports where I want to keep a low profile. I can't imagine lugging a Sony F900 or a Panasonic Varicam or something through the airport, I'd get stopped in a heartbeat.Moral of the story, SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT! you'll be glad you did. You can have a lot of success shooting while you're traveling, it just takes a little extra effort.
Happy Shootin!
HDCineman
